Barcelona captain Lionel Messi has been
absent for three weeks following a broken arm but he is healed and will play
with the rest of the Barcelona squad in Sunday's (November 11, 2018) La Liga
encounter. Barcelona coach Ernesto Valverde was however hesitant in declaring
Messi fit enough or no to play for 90 minutes against Real Betis but said he
was no longer worried about sustaining a similar injury. Messi broke his arm 23
days ago while in a La Liga game against Sevilla.
"We'll see tomorrow but he has
lost the fear of falling over, of supporting himself, of clashing with
opponents," Valverde said at a news conference.
"That's the main thing, because
these types of injuries limit you in those aspects. He is in good shape,
certainly."
Despite Barcelona's record scorer's
absence, the Blaugrana have fared well, beating Inter 2-1 at home, thrashing
Real Madrid 5-1, defeating Rayo Vallecano in La Liga and securing a 1-0 win
over Cultural Leonesa in the Copa del Rey.
Ousmane Dembele on the other hand was not
included in Barcelona's squad list. Dembele missed training without permission
on Thursday. Dembele has had a hard time adapting at Barcelona since
signing for Barcelona in August 2017 at a then record fee of €105 million. Philippe
Coutinho will also be unavailable - for a few weeks - due to a hamstring
injury.
Dembele's fellow Frenchman Samuel
Umtiti who has been out for more than six weeks - since the 2-1 defeat at
Leganes on September 26 - has fully recovered from his knee injury and was
included in Sunday's squad.
Barcelona
announced Messi's return to the squad on Saturday on their social media accounts.
👍 Leo #Messi has been medically cleared.https://t.co/qv8WHQ0vtb— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) November 10, 2018
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